County leaders: Love the Spanish Moss Trail? Help support it

If you love the Spanish Moss Trail, Beaufort County leaders are calling on you to help support it.

Members of the County Council’s Finance Committee recommended Monday that $250,000 in taxpayer funds be used to improve a section of the trail between Roseida and Clarendon roads.

At the same time, they called for private donors to step up fundraising efforts to finish the trail.

The more than 9-mile-long running and cycling path, which is being built in sections along an old railroad bed, is expected to eventually reach at least 14 miles stretching from the Sands Beach in Port Royal to the Whale Branch River.

The $250,000 the Finance Committee recommended approving for the project is to serve as the final payment on a $750,000 match the county promised when it received a more than $2 million grant from the PATH Foundation, deputy county administrator Josh Gruber said.

County Councilman Jerry Stewart commended the foundation — along with the James M. Cox Foundation, which have combined to contribute over $3 million to the trail — but said he has been frustrated with the lack of progress on other fundraising fronts.

Several years ago, supporters of the the Friends of the Spanish Moss Trail group began fundraising to pay for a third of the county’s grant match — which has yet to come to fruition, he said.

Gruber said the county plans to “reach out the Friends of the Spanish Moss Trail and ask them to come forward at next month’s Finance Committee meeting to give an update on where they are with their fundraising activities.”

Private fundraising efforts will be crucial to completing the path, county leaders agreed.

With the upcoming sale of the Port of Port Royal, there could be additional opportunities to extend the path on its southern end, Gruber said.

Councilman Brian Flewelling said of the northern section of the trail, “I’d love to be able to ride my bike all the way to Yemassee.”

This story was originally published August 7, 2017 at 6:34 PM with the headline "County leaders: Love the Spanish Moss Trail? Help support it."